


When the Past is not Gone

by vogue91



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Love, Past Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2019-03-21 17:08:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13745499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vogue91/pseuds/vogue91
Summary: She had Dora and Ted, a home and a family. They loved her and she loved them.And she had a bottle of Fire Whiskey waiting for her which, she had to give it to Ted, was not at all a bad idea.





	When the Past is not Gone

She had spent a long time reorganising the attic.

She had found about _everything._

Dora’s old clothes, worn shoes she didn’t know she had kept, pictures, old wands, books and more.

She was exhausted.

She had decided to take five, when her eyes set on a box in a dark corner, covered in dust, as abandoned.

In a first moment she couldn’t think about what it could contain; she thought it could be yet another bunch of Dora’s keepsakes, belonging to the era when the girl was still at Hogwarts, gotten there to make room downstairs.

She got closer, deciding to give it a quick look before going to the kitchen and have some tea.

She cracked it open, and her face clouded.

 

~

 

He had gone to the attic to look for his wife; she had spent a good part of the morning trying to put an order to that chaos of objects lying there since forever, and he wanted to ask her to rest for a while, or she would’ve given up before lunchtime.

When he reached the doorstep, though, he kept quiet.

Andromeda was kneeling in front of a worn-looking box. She had some sort of a book in her hands and a purplish dress on her legs.

Ted got closes, without making a sound, and he heard her sighing.

“Dromeda?” he murmured.

His wife turned, and he saw her tears blending with an expression of... rage? Disappointment?

And then he understood.

That expression was so unusual for her, but Ted had already seen it before. He had seen it whenever their arguments focused on the Blacks.

He hated that family; he didn’t have any specific issue with Pureblood, with the arrogance of some of them in thinking themselves so bloody superior. He had grown accustomed to it, he had learnt to go straight ahead on his road, unconcerned of the malevolent glimpses he often was subjected to.

What he really couldn’t stand, was the way in which thinking about them almost seemed to destroy Andromeda.

He had fought to give some peace to his wife, to make her forget about her past, making her live only in the present, and he thought he had managed to.

But memories... those couldn’t be erased.

And the look on the woman’s face showed it, the veiled tears in her eyes, the anger on her face.

The Blacks kept existing, and this was enough to make her feel bad, to remind her of what she had lost.

An horrible family, a family that would’ve clipped her wings, hadn’t she escaped.

But still a family.

He went even closer, putting a hand on her shoulder. She looked at him, making a mild attempt to smile.

“I’m coming right away, I’ll make some tea.” she said, as if there was nothing wrong. Ted smiled back to her, surprised as usual at how his wife could  always pretend everything was okay.

“Forget the tea. I think I’ve got a Fire Whiskey bottle somewhere downstairs.” he replied, and she laughed.

“Any excuse is good to drink.” she muttered, standing up and following him downstairs.

Before getting out of the attic, she looked behind.

The box was still there. And there it would’ve stayed, because Andromeda knew she would’ve never have the courage to throw it away, nor to look inside it again.

The past could be put in a drawer of the memory, be left there to take on dust, ignored for decades.

But it couldn’t be erased nor thrown away, never.

And she, after all, had her present.

She had Dora and Ted, a home and a family. They loved her and she loved them.

And she had a bottle of Fire Whiskey waiting for her which, she had to give it to Ted, was not at all a bad idea.

She closed the door behind her back, determined.

She closed once again the door on her old family, the one that wasn’t hers anymore.

She knew it was there, somehow. And it was enough to hope that her, Black to the bone, could go on despite all. A hope. It was all she asked from that box.

No. She was never going to get rid of it.

Andromeda held out an arm to Ted, and held his hand tight.

She had been living in the present for a long time, and she loved it to death.


End file.
